afrinpost-Exclusive
The Kurdish region of Afrin has wrapped up its olive harvest season, yet the imposition of levies persists, highlighting ongoing challenges faced by the agricultural community. After taxing fields and production in olive presses, the armed militias known as “Ahrar al-Sharqiya” have extended their levies to include tree pruning.
The “Ahrar al-Sharqiya” recently imposed a new levy of five Turkish liras on locals to permit them to prune olive trees post-harvest. Those wishing to undertake pruning are required to visit the militia’s office in the village of Haj Khalil-Rajo. The office, managed by “Abu Taimaa,” oversees economic affairs for the “Ahrar al-Sharqiya” militia in the town of Rajo, according to the weekly documentation report released by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (Yekîtî) on 25/11/2023.
This new levy follows the conclusion of the olive harvesting period and a series of exorbitant levies, including the seizure of numerous olive fields situated in the town of Rajo and its surrounding villages along the Afrin-Rajo road, starting from the Mobata/Ma’batali junction to the Berbenê/Barband junction.
The “Ahrar al-Sharqiya” had previously notified residents of Rajo and the controlled villages about olive pressing times in several presses, such as Said Umi/Memala, Abdulkur/Qaws Rajo, Omar/Kora, Amin/ Qantareh, and Abu Rashid/ Qantareh. This was aimed at exerting control over the collection of levies, including a 50% levy on the production of displaced people’s fields and a 5-10% levy on the production of fields belonging to present citizens.
In a bid to find pretexts for seizing olive fields, the “Ahrar al-Sharqiya” once again urged residents of Zarkan village, whose fields fall within their control, to provide property ownership documents. Obtaining these documents is challenging, requiring retrieval from the land registry offices in Aleppo and submission to the militia’s economic office in Rajo, under the threat of field seizure.
Similar to other militias affiliated with the Turkey in Afrin, the “Ahrar al-Sharqiya” employ various methods under different names to collect funds, including tree taxes, protection taxes, production taxes, and levies at checkpoints during the transportation of olives and olive oil. During this season, they imposed a levy under the pretext of “supporting Gaza.”
In the previous season, officials from the economic office of the “Ahrar al-Sharqiya” militia in Rajo, known as “Abu Rabi’ and Abu Rida,” imposed a tax on widows. This tax encompassed widowed women in the villages of Qasim, Kura, Jaqlama, Rajo, Shadia, Farfarqa, Sewiya, Amara, Ketkh, and Gundi Ster.
The widows’ tax was an in-kind levy on olive oil production, ranging from two cans(each 16 liters) to five cans per woman, depending on the quantity of oil produced.
